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Christian  Woman’s  Board  of  Missions 
Missionary  Training  School 
Indianapolis,  Ind. 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/workofdisciplesoOOwood 


Work  of  the  Disciples  of 
Christ  in  Porto  Rico 


WORKERS  in  Porto  Rico  are  constantly 
impressed  by  the  passing  of  the  old 
and  the  coming  of  things  modern, 
usually  — not  always  —  better.  Now  is  the 
meeting  point.  The  broad-wheeled  ox-cart  is 
hurried  to  one  side  by  the  clanging  automobile. 
The  Black  mantillad  senora  sits  beside  her 
daughter  with  gown  and  hat  in  the  latest  New 
York  style.  Children  speak  English  at  school 
and  Spanish  at  home.  Thatched  huts  are  giv¬ 
ing  place  to  lightly  built  wooden  cottages.  The 
sewing  machine  is  heard  in  the  land.  An 
electric  light  shines  out  from  age-old  Morro 
Castle.  In  the  coast  towns,  at  l6ast,  the  domi¬ 
nant  note  is  progress,  which  is  filtering  back 
through  the  hills.  A  middle  class  is  rising. 
We  are  in  the  midst  of  the  making  of  Amer¬ 
icans. 

One  is  safe  in  Porto  Rico.  The  stars  and  • 
stripes  are  a  familiar  sight.  Governor  Colton 
will  not  be  entangled  in  the  petty  politics  of 
the  island,  but  talks  organized  Boards  of 
Trade,  better  coffee,  more  carefully  packed 
fruit,  larger  docks,  alike  to  Republican  and 
Unionist.  Every  district  has  its  gray-coated, 
clean-faced,  vigilant  police  corps.  The  Fourth 
of  July  and  Washington’s  birthday  are  legal 
holidays.  We  feel  at  home  in  a  foreign  land. 


One  may  live  comfortably  in  Porto  JRico. 
In  every  town  stores  are  springing  iip  which 
cany  American  goods  and  have  clerks  that 
speak  English  “a  little.”  As  to  climate,  a 
Lutheran  missionary  said  it  was  no  fun  to 
look  at  the  thermometer — it  was  always  85. 
So  we  do  not  need  your  pitying  letters,  won¬ 
dering  how  we  stand  the  heat  down  here, 
where  it  is  “so  much  warmer.”  There  is  usual¬ 
ly  a  good  breeze.  Hats  must  he  securely 
pinned,  paper  weights  are  appreciated  gifts 
and  books  must  be  laid  with  hacks  to  the  east. 

Where  there  are  children  in  the  mission 
home,  school  is  an  absorbing,  sometimes  a 
heart-breaking  tojric.  Not  so  in  the  pueblos 
of  this  smiling  isle.  Even  liere  we  are  looking 
into  the  future,  to  ultimate  statehood,  but 
Uncle  Sam,  while  believing  his  nephews  shouhl 
govern  themselves,  as  firmly  declares  they 
should  know  how,  so  he  provides  them  with 
schools.  Usually  each  municipality  has  an 
American  superintendent  of  schools  and  several 
American  teachers.  In  Bayamon  there  will  be 
ten  grades  next  year,  besides  classes  in  music, 
drawing  and  night  schools.  The  grades  follow 
closely  the  work  at  home,  using  many  familiar 
text  books,  with  the  addition  of  Spanish. 
Fifty  teachers  are  under  the  direction  of  this 
alert  superintendent,  twenty  of  them  teaching 
rural  schools  in  the  twelve  barrios  of  the 
municipality.  The  getting  of  good  teachers 
has  been  a  problem.  Several  years  ago  a  nor¬ 
mal  school  was  started  in  Rio  Piedras,  where 
young  people  who  have  passed  the  ninth  grade 
(and  this  will  be  raised  as  the  schools  in  the 


4 


island  advance)  may,  with  no  cost  to  them¬ 
selves  but  board,  take  a  two  or  a  four-year 
course  in  a  modern  school,  where  beside  the 
regular  curriculum  domestic  science  or  manual 
training  is  required.  The  school  has  au  agri¬ 
cultural  department  also,  and  others  will  be 
added.  We  call  it  a  university,  though  the 
university  lies  more  in  our  hopes  than  in  the 
reality.  One  hundred  and  fifty-nine  young 
people  graduated  from  this  school  this  year. 
The  Commissioner  of  Education  says  the  sup¬ 
ply  of  teachers  has  met  the  demand. 

All  of  the  work  of  the  Disciples  of  Christ  is 
in  the  municipalities  of  Bayamon  and  Toa 
Baja,  just  south  of  San  Juan.  Three  lines  of 
work  are  followed — Orphanage,  School  and 
Evangelistic. 

The  Girls’  Orphanage  work  was  begun  in 
August,  1900,  in  the  old  municipal  building  in 
Bayamon..  October,  1909,  it  w’as  moved  across 
the  street  from  the  Boys’  Orphanage  in  Hato 
'Tejas,  two  miles  west  of  town.  The  girls  occu¬ 
pied  two  cottages,  several  rods  apart,  having 
three  houses  between  them.  Recently  the  mis¬ 
sion  bought  for  fourteen  hundred  dollars  the 
larger  cottage,  called  the  Red  House,  because 
in  the  dim  past  it  was  painted  that  brilliant 
hue.  This  house,  which  would  remind  you  of 
a  rather  dilapidated  summer  cottage  at  home, 
had  long  been  rented,  with  its  six  acres  of 
mountain  and  I'avine,  by  the  mission  and  occu¬ 
pied  by  the  Irelands,  Altons  and  Carpenters 
as  a  Mission  Home.  When  conditions  made  a 
move  desirable,  the  three-foot  native  balcony 
was  extended  to  eight  feet  and  used  by  tlie 

6 


girls  for  dining,  sewing,  study  and  sitting 
room.  When  our  tropical  sliowers  come  pelt¬ 
ing  down  witli  little  warning  there  is  an  in¬ 
stant  scurrying  of  girls  with  plates  of  rice 
and  beans  or  half-darned  stockings.  Because 
the  girls  sleeping  in  the  smaller  houses  were 
frequently  annoyed,  one  w^eek  in  June,  1911, 
the  men  of  the  mission  laid  aside  the  pen  and, 
wielding  the  hammer,  put  a  temporary  dormi¬ 
tory  and  small  room  for  sick  ones  on  the  west 
side  of  the  house,  so  that  work  and  worry — 
yes,  and  rent  money — might  be  saved.  Here 
twenty-three  girls,  remarkably  modest  and  re¬ 
fined  when  compared  with  those  outside,  re¬ 
ceive  daily  instruction  in  housework,  sewing, 
drawnwork  and  the  Bible. 

In  1902  a  tract  of  land  was  bought  for  a 
home  for  boys.  In  December,  1906,  a  sixteen- 
thousand-dollar  cement  building  was  dedicated, 
and  soon  after  the  boys  were  admitted.  The 
thirty-seven  hoys,  with  Superintendent  Van- 
neter  and  his  family,  make  a  bustling  com¬ 
munity.  The  hoys  are  taught  to  do  the  most 
of  the  work  about  the  home,  to  care  for  the 
horses,  some  help  on  the  farm  and  a  class  are 
learning  to  make  shoes.  Religious  services  are 
held  iu  the  schoolroom  conducted  by  the  or¬ 
phanage  workers  and  the  two  teachers.  All 
orphanage  children  are  expected  to  attend 
church  and  many  of  the  older  ones  are  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  church. 

In  the  large  schoolroom  at  the  Boys’  Orphan¬ 
age  Miss  Siler  and  iliss  Lacock  conduct  the 
school  for  our  orphanage  boys  and  girls.  Eight 
grades  were  .covered  last  year.  Our  teachers 

6 


are  handicapped  by  having  to  teach  in  one 
room.  For  some  years  the  mission  has  con¬ 
ducted  a  three-grade  school  on  Comerio  street 
in  Bayamon.  This  has  been  taught  the  past 
two  years  by  an  orplianage  girl,  Providencia 
Navarro.  The  school  meets  in  an  old  dwelling 
house  from  which  the  partitions  have  been  re¬ 
moved  and  the  walls  roughly  whitewashed. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  work  at  Dajous  the 
people  were  promised  a  school.  In  November, 
1910,  Lorenza  Velez,  also  an  orphanage  girl, 
was  sent  to  gather  the  children  of  that  district 
into  a  school,  which  meets  in  the  chapel.  Lor¬ 
enza  and  her  mother  live  in  a  house  formerly 
occupied  by  Manuel  Torres.  She  visits  in  the 
homes  and  teaches  in  the  Bible  School. 

In  1905  the  evangelistic  work  started  by  the 
American  Christian  Missionary  Society  in 
March,  1899,  was  taken  over  by  the  Christian 
Woman’s  Board  of  Missions.  There  are  now 
two  evangelistic  centers — Bayamon  and  Da¬ 
jous. 

Bayamon  is  the  older  work.  In  1908  the 
cement  church  building,  a  gift  of  the  Kentucky 
sisters  at  a  cost  of  nearly  seven  thousand  dol¬ 
lars,  was  dedicated.  The  church  has  three 
classrooms,  electric  lights,  baptistry,  and  when 
we  can  secure  new  chairs  and  an  organ  will 
meet  all  present  demands. 

A  lot  has  been  purchased  for  a  Mission 
Home,  where  a  cottage  is  steadily  rising. 
Services  are  held  weekly  in  the  rented  school¬ 
room  on  Comerio  street,  where  half-clad  chil¬ 
dren  and  tired-eyed  adults  swarm  over  the 
old-fashioned  benches  and  baby  organ,  filling 

7 


the  little  house  and  crowding  about  the  door. 
A  lot  was  bought  in  June,  1911,  and  we  hope 
to  have  a  chapel  soon.  Weekly  services  are 
also  held  in  Minillas,  where  the  newly-made 
converts  meet  in  the  thatched-roof  home  of  a 
hospitable  native.  The  missionary  in  charge 
at  Bajmmon,  beside  holding  eight  services 
weekly,  keeps  in  touch  with  the  work  in  the 
Gutierrez  District  and  the  volunteer  work  in 
Minillas,  visiting  each  twice  a  month  and 
meeting  the  workers  weekly  for  conference  and 
instruction.  Five  miles  northwest  of  Bayamon 
is  a  group  of  four  hamlets,  where  our  native 
evangelist,  S.  G.  Williams,  and  his  wife,  Belen, 
live  and  work.  In  this  section  we  have  a 
wooden  chapel  at  Gutierrez,  erected  in  1910 
in  a  palm  grove,  where  a  lot  was  given  by  the 
man  of  whom  the  former  meeting  place  had 
been  rented.  The  people,  though  poor,  pay 
nearly  half  of  the  cost  and  freely  help  the 
missionaries  with  their  unslvilled  labor.  They 
bought  their  own  bell,  planted  a  rose  garden 
in  front,  recently  raised  the  money  to  paint 
the  inside  a  beautifully  bright  blue,  and  with 
the  old  organ  from  the  Bayamon  church  are 
quite  happy.  The  work  in  the  other  hamlets 
is  new  and  as  yet  the  congregations  meet  in 
the  open  air  or  native  homes,  which  are  gladly 
offered,  but  are  inadequate. 

Back  toward  the  center  of  Porto  Rico,  in  the 
coffee  liills,  there  lives  a  purer-minded,  inde¬ 
pendent  people,  with  less  negro  and  more  Span¬ 
ish  in  tlieir  make-up.  Poor  and  ignorant  they 
surely  are,  and  as  yet  little  touched  by  the 
influences  on  the  coast,  though  here  and  there 

$ 


the  flag  waves  over  rudely  constructed  build¬ 
ings,  wliere  wiggling,  barefoot  youngsters  are 
t lying  to  master  an  education.  In  such  a 
jilace,  twelve  miles  southwest  of  Bayamon  and 
three  miles  away  fioni  a  wagon  road,  the  hill 
work  of  our  mission  was  begun  at  Bajous  in 
April,  1907.  In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year 
the  small  but  already  outgrown  chapel  was 
bnilt.  Manuel  Torres,  of  justly  earned  fame, 
lias  been  the  leader  and  guide  of  this  staunch 
little  Hock.  Some  relatives  of  Manuel  Torres 
lived  in  Barrio  Xuevo,  three  miles  away.  Serv¬ 
ices  were  held  there,  the  missionary  in  Baya¬ 
mon  kept  an  eye  on  the  work  and  in  March, 
1910,  two  mission  families  camped  on  the 
mountain  top,  where,  amid  fern,  trees  and 
palms,  through  wdiich  one  caught  glimpses  of 
the  beautiful  Plata — silvei’ — River  and  the 
distant  Atlantic  and  God  seemed  very  near,  a 
lot  had  been  given  for  our  second  chapel  in 
the  hills.  The  men  toiled  bravely  up  paths 
over  wdiich  ive  slowly  crept,  carrying  great 
loads  of  zinc  and  lumber  on  their  heads. 
Bajous  helped  with  money  and  muscle  and 
finally  the  day  of  triumphant  dedication  came. 
It  was  found  that  the  people  here  had  raised  a 
little  more  than  half  the  money  for  their 
church  home. 

Buring  the  summer  of  1910,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Carpenter  moved  to  the  hills  and  built  their 
pleasant  mission  home  on  the  Comerio  Road, 
some  eight  miles  from  Bayamon.  In  the  au¬ 
tumn  ^Ir.  Carpenter  began  weekly  services  at 
low'er  Bajous,  near  his  home;  six  services  a 
month  in  Naranjito,  just  w'est  of  Barrio  Nuevo; 


9 


once  a  month  he  goes  to  Juan  Asencio,  the 
barrio  east  of  Dajous,  and  also  as  often  across 
the  river  west  to  Guadiano.  Then  twice  a 
month  he  goes  to  Dajous  and  Barrio  Nuevo 
each.  To  reach  several  of  these  places  he 
must  follow  steep  mountain  paths  where  no 
wagon  can  go. 

The  work  of  the  Disciples  of  Christ  is  not 
large,  nor  can  it  be.  If  the  evangelization  of 
Porto  Kico  means  the  placing  of  the  preach¬ 
ing  of  tlie  Gospel  within  the  reach  of  every 
person,  it  is  easily  within  sight.  If  it  means 
the  training  of  a  pure,  self-reliant  native 
church  there  is  work  to  do  in  this  island  where 
now  but  one  person  in  each  one  hundred  four 
professes  to  be  a  member  of  a  Protestant 
church.  A  map  was  prepared  by  the  M.  E. 
Mission  and  sent  to  the  “World  in  Boston,” 
which  shows  Porto  Rico  thickly  dotted  over 
by  preaching  points  under  the  direction  of  over 
one  hundred  American  missionaries.  There 
has  been  a  tacit  understanding  of  the  division 
of  the  land  not  quite  so  definite  as  Grose  would 
make  it  appear.  Once  in  two  years  all  denom¬ 
inations  meet  for  conference — in  two  cities  at 
least.  Ministerial  associations  are  organ¬ 
ized,  our  own  missionaries  meeting  with  those 
in  San  Juan.  The  intercourse  between  mis¬ 
sions  is  usually  courteous;  all  workers  are 
admitted  to  the  Methodist  Rest  Home,  at 
Aibonito,  to  cure  tired  minds  and  nerves;  at 
the  Presbyterian  Hospital,  at  Santurce,  tired 
bodies  are  healed  whether  Presbyterian  or 
Baptist,  Catholic  or  Christian.  Our  own  little 
district  near  Bayamon  is  small  and  as  we  ad- 


10 


vance  we  soon  find  organized  work  in  every 
direction.  Bayainon,  a  town  of  nearly  nine 
thousand  inhabitants,  has  two  missions,  the 
Lutheran  ably  led  by  a  consecrated  young 
Scandinavian  missionary  and  his  wife,  and 
our  "own.  On  the  north,  between  us  and  the 
Atlantic,  is  a  line  of  organized  Lutheran 
churches,  at  Monacillo,  Catano,  Pala  Seca,  Toa 
Baja  and  Dorado.  On  the  east,  at  Rio  Piedras, 
eight  miles  away,  the  Baptists  hold  a  strategic 
position  where  they  are  building  a  native  train¬ 
ing  school  on  tlie  edge  of  the  university 
campus  where  their  students  may  freely  enter 
the  university  classes  so  that  they  will  teach 
the  Biblical  subjects  only.  Farther  south  are 
the  strong  Bajjtist  centers,  at  Caguas  and 
Cayey.  On  the  south  Conierio  is  a  M.  E.  cen¬ 
ter,  holding  services  in  ten  surrounding  places. 
On  the  west,  in  Candalaria,  the  next  barrio  to 
Hato  Tejas,  in  Toa  Alta,  in  Corazol  and  Nar- 
anjito  the  Presbyterians  have  long  established 
and  carefully  trained  churches  and  preaching 
points.  Our  work  can  not  be  large,  but  there 
is  no  reason  why  it  can  not  be  a  good  work, 
commanding  the  respect  of  all  other  missions 
and  changing  lives  for  Christ.  Every  mission¬ 
ary  feels  pledged  to  do  his  part  in  making 
it  so.  M.  B.  Wood. 


Published  by  the  Christian  Woman’s  Board  of 
Missions,  Indianapolis,  Indiana.  Price,  3  cents  each; 
20  cents  per  dozen. 


August.  1911. 


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